"If and when you can, don't be the fool. Know thy rules and adjust accordingly." ~ Knight's Seeker,
Unknown
The road is barren and narrow, a well known short cut among the locals. It's dirt path beaten in by travellers over the years, a far cry from the well-maintained imperial roads. Today it's occupied by one man and suits his needs just fine.
Cendric Forrester, a bastard without a title, is his name. Slightly above average in height and on the leaner side, he doesn't exactly appear 'intimidating'. Nor charming, with brown hair and brown eyes like everybody else, nothing about him stands out.
The only thing memorable is the mail shirt he's wearing. Accompanied by neck and shoulder plates, adding additional protection to his armor. Horseless, Cendric could easily pass off in his attire a nobles soldier or guard under a well-off merchant. If not for the ragged brown surcoat hanging over his chest, marking him a Seeker.
At the center emblazoned in grey is the trademark eye of The Knight's Seeker. A Knightly order that traces its heritage to the Old Ruma Empire. Their founding can be surmised for two simple reasons:
Reason one, protecting and controlling the imperial highways. Reason two, clearing and maintaining them.
Of course, members are free to do more than pertaining too those orders. Many become knight-errants, men old or young setting out into the world their own for reasons unknown. For Cendric it's simple, freedom. Getting far away as he can from the Orders sight.
Seventeen. That's how long he's been indentured in their service, for a debt that did not belong to him. It was her debt originally, the tavern girl working at the brothel.
['My mother.']
He came to terms with what she did, birthing him for the purpose as a bargaining chip against his father, to better her own life. Contrary to popular belief, attempting to blackmail some nobleman's son with a bastard is illegal. Especially when said son is a decorated Knight within the Seeker's. The sentence was hundred crowns, about half a dozen years worth of her salary. Or an equivalent years worth of servitude in the Knight's Seeker.
['She offered her son to take her place instead, and that is fine by me.']
In the end everybody walked away happy. The tavern whore continued to do what she did best debt free. The judge slept a bit happier knowing the coin they gave made his purse another ounce heavier. And the fair knight relieved yet again to dodge another scandal, with new recruit the Order would put to good use.
['I wouldn't be surprised if mother decided to have me work at the brothel too, had I stayed any longer.'] Cendric laughed mirthlessly at the thought.
Most children took up the profession of their parents, if they had any. Everybody needs to make a living somehow, Cendric was no stranger to hunger. In the seven years spent with his mother he saw it in the skinny little ghouls fighting for scraps in their gangs. He felt it on the days they ran out money until, the gnawing pain as if his stomach was eating itself out. The slums was his prison back then. An endless cycle of pestilence, fear, hunger, and death.
[We're all looking out for ourselves, it's human that we keep our interests in mind. Life is too short, and I have no interest in being a dog for any longer.]
The Orders academy, Sentinel Tower , was another prison too. But at least it guaranteed three meals a day and a clean bed. Most importantly, the time he spent training and learning to read and write were invaluable to his survival. His situation was ironic, royal law prohibited Nobles paying their debt in slavery or servitude, but Cendric wasn't legitimatized. And only those of Noble blood or extreme talent could become a Knight. Thus because of his father's blood and his own feats, he became a Knight. One that was leashed to a paper, and sent by the Order to do the type of unsavory work befitting for mongrels.
[Either I find a noble who can petition the King to award a title to me. Get someone in the Old man's family to legitimize me. Or do something crazy enough to capture the royal families attention.]
While weighing his options Cendric kept a close eye on his surroundings. Although the road hadn't cut through a forest yet, a looming hill or modest patchwork of trees and shrubs could spell trouble. He wasn't afraid of being bowed down by an indiscriminate hail of arrows. Bandits were more interested in robbing either nobles, who could be wearing expensive items and be ransomed, or merchants, transporting goods. Not everyone can afford to pay the tolls to travel the imperial highways, and many merchants weren't too eager on paying tariffs for their goods. In a sense it's a luxury. Like any other inn or tavern, you fork a few silvers for a decent service , or pay a crown or two for the full experience.
Up ahead was a hill over at the bend of the road near a small forest. A column of smoke rose nearby in the distance, Cendric ignored it, his attention was focused on the hill as he narrowed his eyes.
There!
A flash at the base of the hill from the sun reflecting off something, gone in an instant. All the meanwhile Cendric kept his composure, fighting the urge to instinctively draw his sword at the figure running towards him
"Please, help!"
The cry came from a young blond woman dressed in the typical attire of commoner. She and the rather plain dress she has on were covered in dirt, shallow cuts, and ashes. As she got closer he almost whistled at the size of her chest, conveniently on display.
['I wonder where the rest of her friends are?']
Playing along with her performance, he feigns alarm going for his sword. Otherwise she and her friends would get suspicious.
['Probably near the smoke, that flash was likely a signal.']
"Step no further madam, what reason do you approach me?" Supposedly, knights are to follow a general code of conduct, Chivalry. Bards and poets told tales alike associating it with courage, honor, courtesy, justice, and a readiness to help the weak. What they forgot to mention was that apart from adhering to the rules of their Order, knights were under no obligation to do any of those things.
"Bandits attacking —," The woman says between sniffles, stepping back from him, "My village." Her arms wrapped around her waist as she cries out , "Ser Knight, please help!"
Of course, with a blond, buxom blue eyed beauty like this. None would hesitate to be her knight in shining armor.
['Except there ain't no damsels in distress.']
Cendric holds back a sneer at the one shedding tears in front of him. Instead, he straightens his back to stand a little taller and offers a warm smile.
"Worry not m'lady. I, Ser Cendric Forrester, shall lend you my strength to rid you of these bandits."
['So I can loot your friends corpses to buy a horse, and maybe a decent meal.']
"M-many thanks Ser Forrester." The damsel wipes her face giving Cendric a warm smile. "My name is Brianna, we need to hurry they've already begun to set fire to the village!" Brianna points frantically to smoke on the horizon. Of course there wasn't any village around the forest, Cendric well aware of this.
"Lead on m'lady." He nods eagerly, looking forward to no longer traveling by foot.
A wicked smile touches Brianna lips, thankfully she's already turned her back to him.
'I'll have to keep the act up while we're in the forest. If he isn't a noble, it's easier to slit his throat from behind while the boy's hold him off with the spears.'
Despite many being arrogant and privileged, a knight was still knight, at least for Seekers. Trained in the use of multiple weapons and in relatively fit condition, compared to the rest of the malnourished, and under fed population. On an open field, the average knight could handle a rabble of four to six bandits easily. But in an enclosed space, say a woods or cave, surrounded by spears or pikes is a different story.
It was unfortunate however, that the mark Brianna and her merry band had picked was neither arrogant nor an average knight.